Is eating in a game a good thing?

[Kid Ice]

I was just checking out one of those other gaming web sites which had some details re: GTA San Andreas. This wasn't the first I've heard of this, but for some reason it finally sunk in; in the new GTA you will be required to eat to stay alive. And if you don't eat often enough you'll get skinny, and if you eat too much you get fat.

I'm not a big fan of speculation. IMO the "game X is going to rock" and the "new Nintendo hardware is going to suck" sort of posts are kind of pointless. I should probably hold out on this post until the game is actually released, but here I am halfway through it.

I hate this idea.

Yes, I want (certain) games to be realistic, but not to the point where it intrudes on the gameplay. ESPN 2K5 is pretty realistic, right? How would you like it if the game was constantly interrupted by commercial breaks, like in real life? Or if your wide receiver screamed at you after the game for not getting him the ball enough? Or if you had to sit through a ten minute "show" at halftime?

In GTA VC you could eat, and it would improve your health a little. Who wasted time with that? And now this is going to be a major, required element of the game?

This is the same problem I had with Shenmue. Remember how you would be looking for someone and the person you're asking would say "He's not going to be around until tonight", and you would actually have to wait? I thought that was so cool the first time it happened. But it was just constantly happening. Buy some ramen, play some arcade games, talk to Mom...who needs that in a game? I never got that far into it, but from what I understand you eventually had to get a job to make money, and actually do the job in the game!

Is eating fun? I don't mean going to a restaurant with your girlfriend and your pals and ordering nachos and drinking four beers. I mean the actual act of eating. And I mean eating in the realistic physical sense, not like in Pac Man, wise guy.

[Xarthor]

I was not aware of this feature, but it certainly lessens the appeal of the game to me also (not that I probably won't end up buying it.)

But still, I get your point. Hopefully there will be some sort of cheat/trainer to turn the eating thing off, because it seems silly to me.

[Ed Oscuro]

Metal Slug, maybe? At least it's not like Captain Novolin...(*crosses self six times in quick succession and points a rosary in each of the cardinal directions*), but you'll remember eating too much food in the newer ones will turn you into a PEEG!

But yeah, Shenmue highlights why this should be an extra-only. It's like being able to have your own music channel that you can choose from (music here as a collorary for stuff you can do in Shenmue or GTA3), except aside the drive to get to any track, you have to listen to Video Killed the Radio Star every half hour, at least once. I'm not paying money to have somebody else tell me how to spend my playtime. I don't like strategy games as a rule, and I'm sure as heck not interested in strategic eating inside a supposedly freeroaming game.

Neat topic :-P

Good thing I've already eaten - but isn't that supposed to make you feel less irate? Hmm...

[Quintracker]

The first game that comes to mind is the Adventure Island series. I hated how I couldn't take my time because you're always on the move for more fruit. :P

[Tritoch]

This is the exact (and only) thing that worries me about Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

[Gamereviewgod]

Or if your wide receiver screamed at you after the game for not getting him the ball enough?

Guess we'll find out when Madden is finally released this year, won't we? I'm not joking.

[tholly]

i wont pass judgement until i see how this actually is put in place in the game, but as it stands right now, i think it is a pretty dumb idea....if i wanted to spend time eating, i would go to the fridge and get something, not turn on my PS2...


I guess we will have to wait and see how it actually works out.

[Querjek]

Harvest Moon: AWL made you eat and sleep, which were both very not fun and took away from doing things.

[-hellvin-]

Great....first I die in the GTA games from random BS or car crash or something during a mission and now I'll be dropping dead randomly because I will never bother eating. Wonderful.

[Bratwurst]

I don't think it would be so bad if the game flashes some little indicator icon of a rumbling tummy or some other bullcrap when your character supposedly gets hungry. Then it'd just be like getting a powerup in any other game.

Even still, it crosses a threshold into territory I am not comfortable with. Hydlide made you eat and drink and that game sucked terribly.

[Azazel]

It's mostly a bad idea. I could somewhat see the eating things for RPGs but other than that it doesn't fit into most games very well.

[MarioAllStar2600]

The first game that comes to mind is the Adventure Island series. I hated how I couldn't take my time because you're always on the move for more fruit. :P

Just think of how uncomplete that game would be though if that wasn't a feture.

I personally love the idea of having to eat to staty alive, and if you eat to much you get fat. It gives you something to do in your spare time, but it might get very unconvienint.

[Azazel]

Without the eating Adventure Island would of been too easy.

[Graham Mitchell]

First off, I'm not going to defend GTA. I'm not a huge fan of it, and it doesn't need me to defend it, 'cause every time I knock it, 30 people jump all over me.

But I will say, that I feel that this kind of mindset keeps video games as a commodity and not as an art form. Maybe the designers had a vision of this as something they really wanted to have in their game. Maybe they found a way to make it fun and interesting. (Christ, the whole GTA series is basically the player acting as the game's errand-boy, anyhow. The only reason it was successful is because they found a way to make being the errand boy fun and interesting, so you didn't notice that you were just running around in circles the whole time.)

Sometimes I think that if we didn't have so many expectations for games and just appreciated them for what they were, little aspects of them, like this eating fiasco, wouldn't bother us so much.

Look at music for an analogy. If, say, Primal Scream was expected to make the same record over and over again, and not take any risks, would their music move forward? It might not get worse if they don't try something new, but it certainly won't get better. (And, after they changed their format, they made some damn fine records )

If you like that type of game, and, as a whole, the game is executed well, the little eating thing shouldn't bother you so much. I highly doubt that it constitutes a major part of the game.

Good night, and good luck!

[Ed Oscuro]

But I will say, that I feel that this kind of mindset keeps video games as a commodity and not as an art form.

I don't think so. If anything, I think the majority of experiments we've seen so far have been pretty bad on their own merits - Metal Gear Solid 2's story, parts of Shenmue once again - and I have every right to vote with my pocketbook by not buying their products. Yes, there's no denying there's genius in a Jackson Pollock artwork, but I don't have to hang one in my room.

I'd actually much rather hang a Pollock in my room than suffer through a Hideo-engineered condescending chat again (the same goes for the "our rights are being violated when people tell us to shut the hell up crew recently populated by the Dixie Chicks, Whoopie Goldberg and Theresa Heinz via politically astute commentaries, or rather utterances, which make me, as a Democrat, shudder).

I think there's a lot of room for successful experiments which just haven't been elaborated on due to reticiency and timidity by game publishers, not due to people's buying habits (I wouldn't peg it on developers, who've had lots of good ideas that only barely made it into the arena). It's pretty easy for a band to undergo a format change (easy come, easy go), but pretty hard for a game company's accountants to justify going against the grain - and I think that they actually have a pretty good handle by now on what people like, at least one that's better than they've had in the past.

[Jibbajaba]

I think eating in a game is OK as long as it's approriate to the game (like Harvest Moon), but it seems out of place in a GTA title.

Eating your games, on the other hand, is NEVER appropriate.

Chris

[Ed Oscuro]

Packing peanuts are another matter, though...

(Yes, I have eaten a couple packing peanuts in my time, just a month or so ago, in fact )

[Dahne]

I think the majority of experiments we've seen so far have been pretty bad on their own merits - Metal Gear Solid 2's story

I take exception at that!

Stopping at a McDonald's in GTA might be annoying, but the hunting aspect of MGS3 looks pretty interesting. Who wouldn't love an excuse to wrestle crocodiles?

[Ed Oscuro]

but the hunting aspect of MGS3 looks pretty interesting. Who wouldn't love an excuse to wrestle crocodiles?

True, I for one would like to see Hideo take off in a direction that doesn't seem so foreign. I think that a packing box in the middle of the jungle would be out of place, though (come on, it's "in the genes" )

[Drexel923]

I gave it some thought and am kinda ok with it. It has to be done right though. I mean, they have to make food easily accessible. I can just see doing one of those 5 step missions that you've been working on for days and getting to the end only to die of starvation...if we can stay clear of issues like that, I'll be perfectly fine with it. I'm sure more light will be shed on this as it gets closer to release.